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Published: February 15th 2011
These salty snacks
are sold EVERYWHERE!Slept pretty ok last night finally! Woke up to the least amount of runny nose yet! Woohoo!
I actually have a little energy which is super exciting. After we had a Pana-muffin (like an egg mcmuffin only better) & a Papaya Licuado I decided I could probably travel today without it being too terrible. I'm so bored of being in that room. A change of scenery is necessary. After the Pana-muffin, we walked until we found an open travel agent. We paid the $36 pp for our bus ride to Copan, Honduras (about an 8 hour bus ride). Back to the hotel to pack up our bags again!
Our shuttle driver showed up late, as usual (with the exception of the one time in Antigua where he was 20 minutes early & left without us)! I like being picked up first because then we don't get stuck in these fold down seats that have absolutely no comfort to them whatsoever. I've sat there & don't like it. After driving all over Pana & picking up the rest of the people we headed out. I honestly cannot figure out these drivers & their pickup routes. We always cross over where
Our ride
from Antigua to Copan. we just were & usually end up back at the place we started for one reason or another. It's a strange system to say the least.
On our drive back to Antigua we passed a huge accident. It was one of the chromed out & foamed out chicken buses lying flat on its side. The front end had been on fire. There were about 100 people standing around watching as the firefighters were removing people from the bus. It was nuts. We sat there in traffic for a good 45 minutes to an hour & when we passed the bus there were about 4 ambulances, so many police trucks & firetrucks. It looked really bad. What was even more nuts to us is that it's the very first accident we've seen since we left home. Considering how crazy everyone drives you'd think there would be more, many more. The other thing we talked about was the fact that we have had numerous discussions about how we felt like we were going to tip over while being passengers in the buses. It certainly wasn't comforting to see the bus on its side. That is absolutely for sure. Now we know
they CAN tip over! There wasn't another car around anywhere & it was on a curve. It was so scary to see. Then we passed & immediately our van driver was passing cars like a nascar racer. So loco. Seriously. Oh, & there are never working seatbelts. I miss seatbelts.
Due to the crazy accident we arrived in Antigua much later than we were supposed to. When we got to Antigua we
immediately walked quickly to the most beautiful McDonald's ever & got some food (Geoff had a serious craving). I had some sort of chicken sandwich with guacamole which made it so much yummier than fast food at home. Before we could eat we had to book it back to the travel agency to catch our bus. I felt so American asking for directions to McDonald's.
We got back to the agency just in time to get a good seat on the biggest van we've had the privelege to ride in. Big comfy seats, well mostly comfy. Well used. We then drove around town to pick up the rest of the people (or so we thought). After being on the road for about 10 minutes a girl
in the back, I think she's from Argentina based on her accent, asked the driver to stop for a potty break. Not a great way to start the 5 hour drive.... Unfortunately it was telltale to how the rest of the trip was going to go... Sad day! Once stopped apparently the driver utilized that opportunity to get another fare. So we waited for about 15-20 minutes for some guy to arrive in a cab & join us. Awesome. We then proceeded to drive into Guatemala City, aka Guatemala, aka Guate, where we sat in even more traffic. Yeah for Fridays! (One of our rules is to travel on the weekends, but we've been sick & unable to follow all of our rules... shoot). In Guate we stopped at a couple hotels & picked up some more folks. We lost our comfy seating arrangement at this point & the fold down chair in the aisle became home to Granny (as I referred to her in my annoyed & runny nose state). Granny wasn't a little lady & she came equipped with a cooler, several bags, & a couple purses. So, she & I snuggled for the next several hours. It
We made it to Honduras,
the 4th country on our adventure! was fun. At least her left arm was soft & she didn't smell bad at all. Whew! I should have actually been super stoked on my situation. The other thing to note is that apparently Guatemala is covered in mountains. Every road we drive on is a windy mountain road with lots of "peligroso curvas" (dangerous curve) signs. It makes super long bus rides even more fun & exciting! Anyway, after we picked up a few more peeps in Guate we finally got back on the road. I think at this point we'd already been on the bus a couple hours & hadn't made it very far.. & my nose was running like crazy. Good thing I had a huge wad of tissue with me. After it was already dark we suddenly pull over and stop at a Y in the road (pretty much middle of nowhere). This is where we pick up 3 more women, but we're not entirely sure why they are here. The bus is now packed! But it was kind of a fun group of people, especially at this point when everyone was getting a bit stir crazy.There were several Hondurans from Copan on the bus
One last Gallo
to celebrate our arrival in Honduras. as well as several other Spanish speaking people (my guess stays with Argentinians).
It was interesting to listen to them talk for a lot of the bus ride. They talked about world events from all over the world. I was impressed by all of their abilities to handle the conversation. It's refreshing. So many Americans don't even know what's going on at home, let alone in the world at large. (Especially me right now, I am completely clueless about world events since I never watch tv, read a newspaper, or check news online, I really can't judge...). I just recently found out about all that malarchy going on in Egypt.
As we were getting closer to the border we passed another super scary accident. Two in one day! & the only ones we've ever seen! It was nuts. This one involved at least two cars (there were two tow trucks) who had gone off the cliff on the side of the road. It was creepy. It was already dark & the road was so curvy & nobody sticks to their assigned lane. It's scary! In the different buses we've been in we've been part of numerous close calls which are never ever fun, especially when the other car is a semi truck or another big bus. Ick! I guess we've been lucky.
Finally, after far too long in buses we make it to the border. By this time it's 8 pm & we've been on buses since 9:30 am. We're wondering if we are going to have permanent sensation loss to our butt cheeks. It seems highly possible. Apparently we only have 45 minutes to go until we arrive & we spend about 45 minutes at the border processing all the tourists.
Granny was nice enough to tell us what rate to ask for when exchanging our money (then she offered us a discounted room in her hotel, sadly it's a little too swanky for us so we had to pass). She said at the border they'll offer us 2 Lempira for 1 Quetzal. She said in town we'd get 2.3 for 1. So when the guys came up to us with their HUGE wads of cash to offer to exchange our money, Geoff promptly took the reigns & wouldn't back down until one of them gave us what we wanted. Good work! The wads of cash these guys have at border crossings are nuts. Probably about 5 inches worth of bills & they just walk around with the wads of money out. I guess there are heavily armed men everywhere but still, it's just weird to see. They gave it to us without a peep. Love it! Most white tourists we've encountered don't speak Spanish so I think a lot of people assume that's the case for us all. Ha ha!! Not me! 😉
Our room isn't the greatest room, but the bed is comfy & we have our own bathroom. Hostal Don Moises is where we're staying. Actually we have two beds. One for the bags, one for us.
We promptly headed back out front to get some food. HUNGRY! Right in front of our hostal is a taco stand where he just happened to be cooking up some meat when we drove up. It smells sooo good! 3 tacos each for $1.25. Yes please! Sooo yummy. I am going to have to learn how to make homemade tortillas. They are just so good. And, how to cook pork like they do. Delicious. Also, every time I take the spicy salsa from anywhere, I get a stern warning from someone at the place we are eating. Clearly they don't know who they're dealing with. The spicier the better as far as we're concerned!
After tacos on the sidewalk, we walked around a bit to check out the town. It's a cute little town. The Honduran men all wear cowboy hats, really really tight jeans & cowboy boots (at least the older men). Geoff feels a bit like he's visiting family in New Mexico. ; )) There is a huge difference in the way people dress here than in Guatemala. The women, especially younger women, leave nothing to the imagination. Lot's of tight jeans & stretchy tight tank tops (usually with sparkles of some sort, which I like). The younger guys are often in American type clothes, think A&F, AE, etc. Lot's of big silver bling on most people. It's almost shocking to go from such a conservative country to such a polar opposite country, at least in dress. I feel like all the conservatism rubbed off on us. We were both saying things like "oh my that's a short skirt" or "she could use a longer tank top." Kinda funny. The older women are much less conservative also, but not quite as spandexy.
We found a little bar & got a drink & sat on the deck & people watched for a bit. One drink & we were ready for bed. It had been a very long travel day.
Off to sleep!
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